Elder Scrolls Online - Ask Us Anything #15

Couchpotato

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ZeniMax Online has posted the latest Ask Us Anything update where they answered a few questions from the recent AMA with the gaming community.

Get answers to even more questions about ESO in today's Q&A.

We're always on the lookout for your questions, whether they're on social media, popular discussion sites like reddit, or in our community inbox. There's no shortage of great questions out there, so we've gathered some new ones up and answered them for you right here. Have a question we haven't answered?
More information.
 
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People still play this? It seems to have disappeared from my news reader...
 
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People still play this? It seems to have disappeared from my news reader…

I'm still waiting for the EU server migration. I don't want to play with high ping - and I think it was a big mistake to casually ignore this problem and their reasons were weak, from where I'm sitting.
 
I'm still waiting for the EU server migration. I don't want to play with high ping - and I think it was a big mistake to casually ignore this problem and their reasons were weak, from where I'm sitting.

For an action game like this I would have thought ping is very important so bit odd to have the servers located in NA.

Anyway I was wondering because MMO bloggers who were playing it seems to have gone quite all of sudden. Maybe they all have gone over to the new shiny - whatever that is ...
 
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For an action game like this I would have thought ping is very important so bit odd to have the servers located in NA.

Anyway I was wondering because MMO bloggers who were playing it seems to have gone quite all of sudden. Maybe they all have gone over to the new shiny - whatever that is …

Well, ESO is very different from the traditional loot treadmill WoW-clone, so I think a lot of people were very disappointed with it. Also, they seem to have messed up on grouping to a certain extent - and it's very much a quest/story driven game. I think a lot of MMO fans expect a different pace and many simply aren't interested in heavy story exposition.

Also, the singleplayer TES fans probably expected a very singleplayer-like game, which it could never really be given the MMO limitations, so I'm afraid it hasn't been a very big hit.

Sad, because I still think it oozes potential - and I'm pretty pissed about the server thing. I was having a good time with it, but I honestly felt a bit betrayed by their behavior and attitude.

I'll be resubscribing as soon as they complete the migration, which is supposed to be happening this summer.
 
hmmm… that's what a lot of people have been saying since this game was launched… neither MMO nor SPG… neither fish nor fowl…
What's the reason you think DArt? ZeniMax's inexperience or hubris?
 
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hmmm… that's what a lot of people have been saying since this game was launched… neither MMO nor SPG… neither fish nor fowl…
What's the reason you think DArt? ZeniMax's inexperience or hubris?

I don't know the budget for the game, and we don't know how it'll do on consoles - which is potentially the biggest thing about it.

I think it's been a miscalculation on the part of the designers or the shot-callers, because they obviously expected more people to appreciate a strong focus on lore and a "singleplayer" TES approach to quests.

Personally, I found it to be a very refreshing change in the MMO space, but then again - I'm way past the treadmill and questhub design of modern themeparks.

Also, I prefer to play solo most of the time, so the real issues with the game never bothered me much.

It was a clear-cut mistake NOT to have enough focus on the social aspect - and I'm not sure what they were thinking there.

But, overall, I think the game deserves better - and that it's been given a raw deal.

That said, there's really no arguing with the audience. They want what they want - and if they're looking for more WoW - there's Wildstar now.

Personally, I think that kind of design loses its appeal once you've spent enough time learning that there's really no carrot in the carrot. I have this theory that a lot of MMO fans don't actually understand their own psychology - and they don't understand the long-term impact of certain design choices.

The thing about MMOs is that they take a LONG time to evaluate - and you can spend months having "some fun" until you come to understand whether you really want to have it as a home or not.

There are so many MMOs around today, that people jump from one to the other - and there's no clear winner or clearly superior design. At least, not based on the extremely fickle nature of the audience.

As such, there's a decent chance that ESO will have a comeback down the line, either because of F2P or simply a general change in how it's perceived.

Much like SWtOR - which was almost universally hated for a long time, and though the game is still essentially EXACTLY the same - people are now cutting it much more slack.

People will use whatever excuse for how their opinions change - but I don't think F2P will change anything about ESO for the better. It will just give people an excuse to come around.

People are funny that way ;)
 
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